[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Yes, eventually, thanks for asking. Consider this a detour into current events; it's also getting me reengaged with CMSF after a break for WWII...

[A Bridge Too Far movie question?]

The description in the Panzerblitz endnotes of the British Army as a "tank heavy, infantry poor" TO&E (relative to the other armies) after nearly 5 years of warfare has always stayed with me, although this doubtless varied from formation to formation.

Interestingly, based on the (several hundred) videos I've been watching, the Syrian army that is presently blasting one rebellious city after another appears to have some of those same characteristics -- piles of BMPs and T72s with a very light infantry screen augmented by shabiha militiamen. This is a pretty major disadvantage in MOUT, especially CQB.

I suspect in this case though the issue is that the regime has had to leave many of its Sunni conscripts in barracks, leaving the remaining units understrength.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Getting pretty close to done with the Baba Amr map here. It would take me months more to replace all the Mulaab 2 storey housing compounds with 3+ storey flats, so I've just created enough of them to give a tactically authentic feel to the map. This pano is north from the army's target, the Zubair ibn al Awam mosque to the army start zone on the main boulevard marked by the Al Jouri Mosque. The zoom does compress the view a lot -- this is about 600m deep, more than the width shown.

[Japanese Army Mods]

Awesome! I haven't done anything more on this project myself -- no time to figure out the hex coder thingy. My limited CM time is on my CMSF Baba Amr project. But if anyone can figure out any model swapping secrets for CMBNCW, please post it here! That includes the developers -- it's not like these tinkerings steal any bread from your mouths, and who knows? We might surface a new market for this game....

[New Owners Tips]

A few additional play tips for those who have played CMBN but not CMSF:

* Vehicles can't knock down or cross walls -- this was added in CMA but not back-ported. They can be breached by HE fire, including hand grenades, as well as by .50cal and 12.7mm HMG.

* Trenches are terrain features, not fortifications; they have no FOW, can't be moved around during Setup and are completely visible to the enemy. They act like wide ditches and their cover value vs HE is very weak. There are no foxholes or wire, although bunkers and minefields are available.

* Rooftops are flat and can be entered by infantry (unless there's a dome), but they provide terrible cover. Keep your stays there as brief as possible.

* Balconies are also terrible cover and your troops will automatically go out on them when they enter a building level and are facing toward the balcony. To avoid this, keep your men facing away from the balcony (although they will still go out there on their own if they want to shoot at something) using the "G" (Facing) command.

* You can't split Syrian squads, except their Special Forces and Airborne.

* NATO infantry have body armour; Syrians generally don't (except their SF). This helps your survivability in firefights a good bit, but a lot less at short ranges. Don't exchange fire at length with an equal number of unsuppressed Syrians at under 30m.

* The TacAI got some improvements in CMBN; in CMSF your troops shuffle around a lot more trying to find their places and make themselves more vulnerable to incoming while doing so, especially when a whole squad is together. I advocate splitting your squads, especially Marines, if you don't mind the additional micro.

[Russian Troops in Syria!!!]

Uncle Sam has no problem killing Russians; we and the Yanks, assisted by Inuit scouts, killed a number of spetsnaz intruding on our tundra back in the Cold War. No doubt they returned the favour in Siberia (and Korea and Vietnam).

And I'm reliably informed quite a few USSF, SEALs and SAS went "left of the Khyber" during the Soviet invasion, and a few didn't come back. That stuff from "Charlie Wilson's War" about so many Russian planes being lost that they had to stand down air operations for 3 months, you don't think that was mujahideen behind the Stingers, do you? (at least not initially). And ever wonder why so few Stingers were left behind (none have been confirmed used against NATO forces)?

[Need fact check on German Divisions]

This thread, started by you last May and asking for the same information, has all kinds of links that gives not just divisions but regiments. Aren't you a little young to be having "senior moments?"

[Russian Troops in Syria!!!]

That's why Allah made the Iraqi peshmerga. Sunnis, 30 years fighting Saddam in the Kurdish hills and then ably assisting US forces in places like Ramadi (mosque raids). They were the Coalition's only loyal allies and I hope Uncle Sam doesn't do to them what he did to the Hmong.... But who am I kidding? Those poor people are screwed by history.

[Russian Troops in Syria!!!]

While it's entirely possible that spetsnaz or FSA (KGB) osoby are on the ground advising regime forces (not a combat or assassin role-- they're too conspicuous), I doubt they'd enter via ship or use one as a base. More likely they're providing security, agaimst the possibility the opposition or its overseas sympathizers decide to hijack the vessel to draw attention to Russia's sorid role. Very prudent.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

I got ya re H2H; no problem. I just started playing PBEMs myself after 10 years of CMing, and have actually found it a lot more fun than expected. But yes, a 90 minute scenario does take weeks, even against a conscientious opponent.

AI is going to be tricky for this scenario. My sense is that it'll actually be easier having the regime forces as the AI side, since they're roadbound and advance very systematically.

On the other hand, if the FSA try the same crude "block then flank" tactics that made JOKER THREE challenging for the 3:1 outnumbered and ammo-limited Marine infantry, they're likely to get mowed down en masse by AFVs as they rush through the streets to their next set of buildings. Also, in Baba Amr, they'd likely be at about 1:1 with the regime force, so they can't afford those kinds of mistakes.

The only way the rebels "win" is by inflicting casualties and demonstrating that their vaunted armour isn't invulnerable. They can't -- and shouldn't try to -- stop the regime forces from going where they want, but they can sure make it highly hazardous for them to hold whatever they've seized, especially once night falls.

The AI just isn't much good at patiently skulking in alleys or balconies seeking close-range RPG flank shots or ambushing small elements that have wandered off on their own. I just don't see any way of modeling those rebel tactics without a reactive AI, short of having a human being play them.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Getting really into detailing the shattered buildings. Post WWII construction, where the building is based on cement pillars and floor slabs, disintegrates differently under shellfire than do traditional structures where the exterior walls are the primary load bearing elements. The walls tend to blow out, leaving the floors and skeleton standing, unless the pillars themselves are collapsed. In contrast, once you blow out a large chunk of wall in a masonry building, especially a corner, a fair amount of the adjacent floors and roof will collapse too.

Note also the rubble spewing into the already narrow street. Narrowing the street to half a square doesn't make it impassable to AFVs, but it does slow them down a lot and they will often seek a different route if not carefully micro'd.

I've also uploaded the simple damaged building mod I built several years ago to the Repository and GaJ's site.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Erwin, you may not need to wait much longer since I have you in mind to playtest H2H for "Operation Adiyat" (Warhorse - a sura of the Holy Qur'an), with me as the brave, street-savvy but underequipped FSA rebels and you as the villainous Borf.

You'll be leading a reinforced mech company of the regime's 4th Armoured Division (Republican Guard) into these mean streets. T72s and BMP mounted infantry, plus a special forces commando platoon (actually all your infantry will be SF troops - regime forces pretty much all wear body armour these days -- just Experience and Motivation will differ). See post #16 for a brief outline of the plan.

While this may seem like an overwhelmingly powerful force relative to the opposition (which I'm also modeling realistically -- i.e. they don't have masses of RPGs or IEDs, their C3 is weak, and they aren't all fanatical dervishes, regime propaganda notwithstanding) you have 2 significant vulnerabilities:

(a) nearly all your heavy firepower is on your AFVs, which are streetbound in a battlespace that is 3D and LOS-impaired. Your infantry is all SF HQ or Sniper units -- light infantry -- which deprives you of the RPG-29s. I suspect you're going to find your infantry spread awfully thin really fast... far too little to cover every approach you want to cover and clear everything you want to clear. I've been struck in looking at the videos how infantry poor the regime forces are, whether it's because units had to leave a bunch of Sunni troops locked down in barracks or just think that being an "elite force" means piles of formidable-looking vehicles.

( while this unit is of proven loyalty and willing to kill the regime's enemies, your men and officers are notably unwilling to die, tending to lean on their AFVs (send bullets not men). Their training in combat drills, especially CCB, is also very poor by Western standards, on the standard pattern of Arab armies where officers disdain their noncoms and ordinary jundi, although they've certainly had some OJT over the past year.

As in JOKER THREE, friendly casualty avoidance will be heavily reflected in your VC, regardless of what the people who ordered this attack might prefer. On the other hand, you will get points for killing the irahibin (terrorists) and rafida (renegades).

More later....

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Under a leaden winter sky, a 4th Division T72 blocks the street in front of the al Zubair ibn al Awam mosque, a known rallying point for the resistance.

I had some T72s take a test drive around the streets (unopposed) as a check on navigability.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Mapmaking update. As I continue the makeover of the Ramadi footprint (building about 30% of the housing compounds to 3-5 stories), I'm also starting to "rough up" the area to reflect the above-documented bombardment.

[Japanese Army Mods]

I'd also guess that extreme white guyness is the rule here, especially on the forums. But I always wondered about the "Tamiya factor" in Japan.... ISTR miniatures wargaming has a long and rich history there. As Steve has noted, CM is as much a digitization of the tabletop miniatures tradition as it is the Squad Leader boardgaming one. And go is as ancient a pastime there as chess is in the West.

If we can find a way to get a reasonable looking and behaving IJA infantry force going via model swapping, I think some talented grogs and modders might come out of the woodwork.

I'd love to get some well-read IJA grogs contributing, although I also fear they'd be prone to espouse a Steiner14 apologist ideology. The IJA accomplished some remarkable feats of arms, albeit in the service of a brutal, self-deluding regime. And the vaunted bushido code did as much to impair as to help their performance on all fronts. But I'd like to learn more about what worked for them tactically and what didn't, via CM. There's a lot of mythology floating around on both sides.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

US satellite pictures capture the brutal bombardment of Baba Amr, Feb 25. This area is densely built up, so I'm adding even more 3-4 story apartments to my map when I have time. The regime will need to assault this area with forces that depend heavily on their BMPs and tanks for firepower.

Based on the diagonal road nearby, I think this is the Al Qabaa mosque, at the north end of Baba Amr.

Also, at the end of this short clip, the FSA hits a moving T72 with what looks like an IED - result indeterminate:

Very good piece on the FSA in Baba Amr by Le Monde (Feb)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLAdRnIIbZU

Interesting "zombie formation" used by the FSA to secure an overrun government checkpoint (2 BMPs, 2 BRDM). I'd guess pretty much all the shots fired in this clip are pure celebration, until the end when they actually seem to take some enemy fire. Hardly a professional looking outfit here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCeCoLrO2wY

[Japanese Army Mods]

Work just spiked again, so I'm probably CM-cold turkey for a while, but I encourage you guys to keep exploring this stuff. e.g. have you tried model swapping the palm trees?

[Japanese Army Mods]

the soldier LODs aren't the same as in CMSF...I couldn't get it took work. I wrote Ryujin and he said he hasn't messed with any of the CMBN stuff, so that was a dead end.

I am stumped...it's gonna take someone more experienced in this kind of stuff to figure it out...if it can be done at all. BFC may have changed the structure so people couldn't do this sort of thing.

Bummer, man. But on the other hand, something can definitely be done with AFVs.... roadiemullet swapped Leopards for Shermans a few days after release.

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1260581&postcount=16

And I could swear I saw CMSF trees show up at some point, although I guess it wasn't in the Italian mod set.

[Japanese Army Mods]

Care for a little

while you mod? Kind of a Japanese Horstwessellied.

For the sake of peace in the Orient / No sacrifice is too great. Umm yeah, right....

....Also, for modding purposes, a few selected shots from a blog that collects them

China. I like how they wore their helmets over their field caps.

Guadalcanal, 1942. It clearly got cold at night up in the hills.

Shanghai, 1937. Is that some kind of Sten gun I see?

[Japanese Army Mods]

Great minds think alike.

2. Change US color to Marine sage/green

3. Paint/ texture US helmet to look like camo cover

...

8. Set most IJA to Regular/ green but all fanatic..SNLF would be Veteran or Crack...Korean laborers would maybe not be fanatic

I have no interest at all in tackling USMC, not least because any number of grogs would laugh me out of the room. You go ahead. It'll be enough of a challenge to get a creditable IJA force up and running; hopefully not on my own. My real sweet spot is maps.

As to Japanese morale, it wouldn't necessarily always be Fanatic although I doubt it would be less than Extreme except in cases where intense bombardment had unhinged them.

Also, by 1944 weren't SNLF rikusentai actually inferior to the regular IJA? -- long on fanaticism (and youth) but short on leadership and training. Kind of like the newer late war SS formations. Made them perfect candidates to sit on islands and die for the Emperor. In contrast, Yamashlta's army and some of the veteran formations that had fought in China were tactically formidable enemies, although consistently outgunned.

[Japanese Army Mods]

At this point I'm going to repost an insightful YankeeDog quote from another thread on this topic.

British are indeed probably the best choice to simulate Japanese, primarily because their small arms and other infantry platoon weapons are the closest, at least if you're you're talking about the better, late-war Japanese designs. Many Japanese units remained equipped with older, inferior weapons like the Type 39 rifle and the Type 11 LMG, and there is no real analog for these older weapons in Western WWII designs.

Best Japanese rifle of the war was the 7.7mm Type 99 rifle (the weaker 6.6mm Type 39 was alternate standard by the 1940s in the IJA, though many formations remained equipped with the Type 39 right up to the end of the war). The Type 99 is reasonably close to the SMLE in power and capability, with the mag size (5 vs. the SMLE's 10) probably being the most significant difference.

And the Type 99 LMG is indeed a close analog of the Bren. Same Mag layout and capacity, similar ROF, etc. Overall, though, the Type 99 was not as good a weapon as the Bren – it had significant jamming problems, among other issues.

And the Brit 50mm mortar is probably as close as you're going to get to the so-called "knee mortar."

SMGs are more problematic... the Japanese had a couple of decent designs, most notably the Type 100, but didn't produce or issue anywhere near as many of these as Western forces did. This is important because it dramatically reduces the short-range firepower of Japanese squads in tight terrain (such as jungle fighting). If using Brits to simulate Japanese, you'd need to search for British formations with few or no Sten guns.

MMG and HMGs are tricky, too. Most of the common Japanese designs, such as the Type 92 HMG were derived from the WWI-era French Hotchkiss, and used an unusual rigid strip feed not seen in other contemporary designs. Not sure there's really any Western analog for these weapons. Cyclic ROF was fairly similar to the Vickers, but otherwise I think the Japanese MGs were pretty clearly inferior – harder to operate, much more likely to jam, and lower practical ROF due to the unusual feed. The Type 92 was also very heavy -- much heavier than the Vickers -- so mobility is a significant issue.

As far as indirect support, suffice it to say that the Japanese were nothing at all like the Germans any of the other Western combatants. Their hardware was very different, and in general their system of organization and communication was far inferior. Details are complex, but in general, you’d want to represent fewer tubes, slower response, and lower ROF than from comparable Western formations.

TOE is another large topic… In general, Japanese squads were large (13 man squads were common), and plt. HQ units were often quite small – often, just 2 men, a Lt. and a Plt. Sgt. In at least one common rifle platoon TOE, the platoon also has 4 squads – 3 13-man rifle squads armed with rifles and an LMG, and a 13-man “grenadier squad”, which is really just a rifle squad, equipped with knee mortars rather than the LMG.

I dunno… take it for what you will. Someone who’s really desperate for PTO could cook up a reasonable facsimile of Japanese TOE, especially with the flexibility the CMBN editor give in attaching independent teams to platoons. It wouldn't be perfect, but would be playable.

[Japanese Army Mods]

I am not as versed in the mod swapping as Ryujin...seems like every time I do it successfully I don't quite know how I got there. My mixed Combatant mod for CMSF is still a friggin' mystery to me. It wouldn't work right, I gave up for almost a year, came back to it, did something I can't remember and then it worked. I can tell you one thing, the infantry model LODs are different in CMBN than CMSF, hence the weird way I did the beret. As far as doing trees I have never messed with anything but infantry so I don't know where one would begin.

Awesome! I was hoping I'd smoke you out of the "Bunker" (since I can't burn ya out )

Is there any way you can take a shot at doing just the unmodded model swapping, to save me or MJK the bother of learning what a hex editor is, and how to use it? Here are the two most critical models I need swapped.

1. Uniforms. While Paras are the logical CMBN base force to mod up, since their weapons and helmets are the closest analog to IJA, I'd like to model swap in the German infantry tunic (or maybe the Luftwaffe one?), webbing/belt pouches, trousers and jackboots, as the cut resembles the IJA service uniform more closely than do the woolen British tunic, trousers and ankle boots with gaiters.

Once that's done, the jackboots can be retextured to get those WWI era puttees (look like bandages wrapped around the legs). And I can do some thinking on how to make the webbing look more Japanese (one strap crossing the front of the chest and frequently a satchel crossing the other way. Are there any models at all anyone can think of wearing satchels?).

2. Rifles. The late war Type 99 service rifles resemble a K98 more closely than a SMLE, so if you could swap the German model in that would be just peachy.

I can live with the Stens and Webleys.

[Japanese Army Mods]

Could you please let me know how to import palm trees and/or buildings from CMSF into CMBN?

Thanks

It involves mucking about with a hex editor to "repoint" the game to different models, but beyond that you'd need to ask Ryujin or Mord or others who've done it. At one point I did see M1A1s rolling around the Norman countryside, but they were still really Shermans for game purposes. I also beliece that the CMBN Italian campaign mod swapped in CMSF trees, including palms and olives, for some of the smaller French ones.

Search for an old CMSF thread called "Model Swapping" for more info.

[Japanese Army Mods]

"Jap" is a slang term these days as you know, although I'm sure you don't intend it that way. I encourage folks to either spell out "Japanese" or use IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) where possible.

I'm not the hypersensitive PC type or anything but I'd love to get some Japanese (or Korean) players engaged here if possible, so it would be good not to be greeting them with racist epithets, even unintentional.

Your other points are really good but I'll have to say more later.

[Japanese Army Mods]

Well here's the thing: it seems the majority of CMers focus on the tank vs tank fights and/or on full company+ frontal assaults and barrages.

Me, I like nothing better than a platoon+ fight in complicated LOS-unfriendly terrain, either WeGo or RT with lotsa pausing. I don't mind spending 20 minutes winkling out a sniper -- that's interesting to me. And to me AFVs are basically gun platforms.

So the PTO definitely appeals to me for the same reasons many (most?) of you dislike it. But as I said in the OP I really don't want to spend this thread arguing whether or not this is worthwhile. If it ain't your cup of sake, move along and best of luck!